The genocide in Namibia: genocide in a historical-political or in a legal sense?
Published: 23 September 2017 Author: Stefan Talmon
In 1904, the Herero and Nama tribes revolted against German colonial rule in the territory of today’s Namibia. The revolt was brutally crushed by imperial German troops. It is estimated that, between 1904 and 1908, some 65,000 Herero (80 percent of the tribe’s population) and some 10,000 Nama (50 percent of the tribe’s population) were killed, starved to death or died in camps. The events have been referred to as “the first genocide of the 20th century”.
While Germany acknowledged its “moral and historical responsibility to Namibia”, it has tried to avoid referring to the events as “genocide”. The German government has been fulfilling this responsibility through particularly close development cooperation. Thus, the amount of development aid received by Namibia from Germany has been the highest per capita in Africa.
On 29 June 2017, the German federal parliament, with the votes of the governing parties, rejected a motion which read, inter alia: (more…)